How Could You? Hall of Shame-Chicago Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Chicago, Illinois, “a Chicago psychiatric hospital responsible for treating children in state custody with the most serious psych conditions is facing serious allegations of sexual assault from its patients.

Chicago Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, located in the city’s Uptown neighborhood, has served as a lifeline for Illinois’ Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), taking foster children with psychiatric issues that other hospitals just wouldn’t treat. Since at least 2008 DCFS has been aware of incidents of loose supervision of its young patients, resulting in sexual abuse and assault by fellow residents and even staff. A government agency created to protect the safety and welfare of our children not only knows about these cases of abuse and neglect, but for at least 10 years have allowed these problems to persist, continuing to send children entrusted to their care to the hospital.

Allegations of sexual assault and abuse at the hospital reached a fever pitch this year. According to ProPublica, there have been 16 allegations of sexual and physical abuse and neglect against the hospital since January, including 2 allegations of sexual assault against the same 7-year-old girl. The girl alleges that on separate occasions, a 12-year-old fellow patient and an employee digitally penetrated her. Of these 16 allegations, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) found enough evidence to support 4 cases and are currently investigating 5 others. There was not enough evidence to substantiate the other 7 allegations.

As of late October, there were currently 18 children in DCFS custody being treated at Chicago Lakeshore Hospital.

 

Hospital May Lose Medicare Funding This Month
IDPH is given licensing and regulatory authority over state psychiatric facilities, including the power to recommend revocation of Medicare and Medicaid certification. Through 3 regularly scheduled annual inspections, IDPH found significant flaws in the facility, as well as in the care and supervision provided. These findings are in addition to the 16 allegations of sexual and physical assault and abuse that have been unearthed by IDPH since January. Some of IDPH’s 2018 inspection findings include:

• Numerous suicide risks including faulty doors and dangling phone cords
• Giving children antipsychotic medications without informed consent
• Failure to conduct a rape kit on a minor patient who alleged sexual assault

These findings led officials to recommend revoking the hospital’s Medicare and Medicaid funding, effective 9/28. In a last minute federal court filing, the hospital submitted a motion to extend the deadline, providing evidence that they had replaced doors and phones, as well as correction plans that detailed their plans to strengthen patient supervision and care. The deadline was extended twice more, and the third and latest extension has a deadline of 11/30. This means the hospital must provide sufficient proof that they have responded to all of the violations found by IDPH and have taken steps to fix problems.

Both Chicago Lakeshore Hospital and DCFS are desperate to keep Medicare and Medicaid. This year, 80% of the hospital’s reimbursements come from Medicare/Medicaid, meaning the hospital needs it to keep the doors open. DCFS also needs the facility to keep its doors open: the hospital accepts foster children that other hospitals turn down. ProPublica found that 41% of the 1,100 children and teens treated at Chicago Lakeshore Hospital in 2017 were in state care.

What’s Next for the Children at Chicago Lakeshore Hospital?
DCFS has said that they stopped sending children there as of this month and have also agreed to an independent review of the facility. However, Charles Golbert, Cook County’s acting public guardian, told ProPublica that instead of multiple reviews by state and federal agencies, children at the facility would be best served by one independent review. He says giving DCFS any involvement in a review would be a conflict of interest. However, a 2010 review of the facility by an independent team hired by DCFS did find allegations of sexual assault and neglect stemming from improper staff supervision.

Last Wednesday, two high ranking Chicago City Council members asked for a hearing into the latest allegations of physical and sexual abuse at the hospital, saying that it falls under their authority to investigate what’s happening to children in the state’s care.

For now, the public waits to hear what will happen next. On November 30th, the hospital may lose its funding and be forced to shut its doors permanently. Or perhaps another extension will be granted or even dismissed, provided the hospital submits enough evidence of improvement.

The children at Chicago Lakeshore Hospital are another story. Many of those who reside there have been medically cleared for discharge, but DCFS uses the hospital as a holding facility of sorts. With nowhere else to house them, DCFS often relies on the hospital to continue caring for children that are their responsibility. Should the hospital’s doors permanently close, foster children may be left without anywhere to go.

This should not be happening. Children shouldn’t be forced to stay in a hospital because our system has nowhere better to put them, and the hospital responsible for their care should never, ever allow incidents of physical abuse, sexual abuse, or attempted suicides to happen. Our children deserve better.”

Chicago Foster Children Allege Multiple Sexual Assaults at Chicago Lakeshore Hospital

[Levin  & Percotti blog 11/19/18 by Steven Levin and John Percotti]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:“Federal authorities are once again threatening to cut off funding for an embattled Uptown psychiatric hospital beset by complaints of physical and sexual abuse of young patients, including foster children in state care.

Chicago Lakeshore Hospital officials said Friday they are “working to come into compliance with regulations” before a Dec. 15 federal deadline. With more than 80 percent of its patients receiving Medicare or Medicaid benefits, hospital officials said the facility may shutter, reducing access to mental health services. Layoffs began within the last few days, officials said.

Also Friday, a federal judge tapped experts at a Chicago university to do an independent review of the safety of children at the hospital, and Illinois health officials said they may pull the psychiatric facility’s state license.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services stopped admitting children in its care to the hospital one month ago amid an increased number of hotline calls alleging harmful conditions. DCFS also began transferring foster children out of the hospital and stationing staff inside the facility 24 hours a day to better monitor its remaining patients.

Those steps were taken under pressure from child welfare watchdog groups and state lawmakers after separate reports about the hospital’s recent problems by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois.

The final foster child left the hospital Friday afternoon, said DCFS spokesman Neil Skene. He said all are in foster homes or residential treatment facilities with support services. While transferring children, two 17-year-old boys ran away in separate incidents, but both have been located, Skene said.

The hospital pledged to work with state and federal agencies to fix the problems. It’s unclear, though, what inroads Chicago Lakeshore can make before a deadline that’s just two weeks away. After another threat a few months ago to cut off government funding, the hospital asked a federal judge to intervene, then withdrew its request when regulators agreed to give the hospital more time.

On Friday, Lakeshore officials would only say that “options are being explored.”

“Many of the children we serve have no place else to go, and we offer the best hope for their stabilization and return to society,” Dr. Peter Nierman, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said in a statement. “Frankly, this is a population that virtually no other facility wants to take, and I believe that without Lakeshore, the already tragic story of some of these children will only be further exacerbated.”

DCFS launched at least its 20th hotline investigation last week. The latest complaint accused hospital staff of inadequate supervision regarding sexual activity between teenage patients. It was the fourth hotline call in recent weeks, including a Nov. 19 complaint involving a 9-year-old patient who accused a staff member of choking her while trying to restrain the child.

The hospital had only about 17 total hotline investigations in the prior three years, according to DCFS statistics. Most of this year’s hotline investigations were sparked when hospital staff, who are required to report under state law, notified child welfare officials of the allegation.

The Illinois Department of Public Health, which licenses the hospital, had been inspecting Chicago Lakeshore in recent months mostly for regulatory safety issues, such as whether adequate suicide-prevention measures were in place regarding the length of telephone cords or the doors to empty rooms were properly secured. The state health department contracts with the federal government, which is in charge of Medicaid and Medicare funding.

On Friday, state public health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said recent media reports led the agency to also investigate complaints alleging young patients were physically or sexually abused. Inspectors found the hospital staff failed to notify state health officials about the complaints as required, and that the facility often failed to take corrective action or launch sufficient investigations, according to the reports.

State health officials recommended termination of federal funding and are “looking at license suspension or revocation,” Arnold said.

On the federal front, the hospital was informed of the Dec. 15 deadline to cut off funding in a certified letter dated Thursday.

“We have determined that the deficiencies are so serious they constitute an immediate threat to patient health and safety,” wrote Nadine Renbarger, an associate regional administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “The deficiencies limit the capacity of your facility to render adequate care and ensure the health and safety of your patients.”

In recent weeks, DCFS repeatedly has been hauled into federal court as it battles with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois over concerns about the psychiatric facility. The ACLU, which monitors DCFS through a decades-old federal consent decree, called for an outside review of the hospital.

During a court hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso approved the University of Illinois at Chicago psychiatry department to oversee the review, which the hospital said it welcomed.

“Chicago Lakeshore Hospital knows improvements can be made and we will continue to steadfastly make those improvements, but shutting us down is tantamount to throwing out the baby with the bathwater,” hospital CEO David Fletcher-Janzen said in a statement.

Alonso also ruled that a retired federal judge will be appointed with decision-making authority to help DCFS and the ACLU iron out its frequent disputes in the consent decree case. DCFS unsuccessfully opposed the ACLU’s request for a so-called “special master,” instead favoring a facilitator without as much authority.

Chicago Lakeshore is one of the largest hospitals for psychiatric services in Illinois. An estimated one-quarter of DCFS kids who need inpatient psychiatric services are treated there, and many languish beyond their scheduled discharge date as the state agency struggles to find homes with appropriate services.

If the hospital closes, DCFS officials said the larger challenge is not just the dwindling number of psychiatric beds but the need for “a more robust mental health system to provide more treatment to more people in their own communities, without hospitalization.”

“The capacity of the mental health system is not just a DCFS challenge but a challenge for the state of Illinois,” DCFS Acting Director Beverly “B.J.” Walker said in a statement. “We need to put more attention on ways to reduce the need for psychiatric hospitalization.””

Feds threaten to yank funding of Uptown psychiatric hospital following child abuse complaints

[Chicago Tribune 11/30/18 by Christy Gutowski]